Media Responsiveness: A Ray of Hope in times of Calamity
In the repercussions of suffering caused by natural and man-made catastrophes in the last couple of decades, a new realization is taking place in the contemporary world. The ideas of wide-ranging comprehension to mitigate the losses of both life and property to a maximum possible extent prevail. It was emphasized by Dodson (2013) that effective communication and responsible utilization of technology-based systems devoted to international and local cooperation is a necessity to reduce human and other species’ anguishes caused by disastrous impacts.
A Shoe to Fill In
Communication and media have proven critical and evaluative for the cause of disaster mitigation (Dave, 2010). Mass media has imparted not only the data management and analysis techniques but also escalated the mass’s knowledge towards hazards’ origins and behaviors. The advent of mass media has assisted to sensitize people in the most effective method through live coverage of hazards and prompt reporting.
In a research journal, Mauroner (2016) elucidated that media forges a link between the public and emergency organizations which plays a vital and significant role in disseminating urgent information to the public before, during, and after disasters. The media aids in the management of disaster by educating about disasters; warning of hazards; gathering and transmitting information about affected areas; alerting government officials, relief organizations, and the public to specific needs; and facilitating discussions about disaster preparedness and response for continuous improvement. In addition, Heudorfer (2016) mentioned that the media would require establishing and maintaining cooperation with the disaster management organizations to directly and effectively fulfill the roles.
Dave (2010) cited the experiences of Bangladesh in November 1970 and May 1985 where the country was hit by a tropical cyclone combined with a high tide. The 1970 cyclone left more than 300,000 people dead and 1.3 million homeless. The 1985 cyclone and storm surge hit the same area, but this time there was better local dissemination of disaster warnings, initiated by local media organizations and platforms and the people were better prepared to respond. As a result of the preparation, the country tallied 10,000 casualties, about three percent fewer than the 1970 cyclone. The disaster preparation culture of Bangladesh continued as the 1994 cyclone tallied fewer than 1,000 casualties. These experiences show that regular interactions with the media before a disaster strikes aids the effective flow of information, and lays the groundwork for effective working relationships in the aftermath of a disaster. As Dave (2010) summarized, public education and the rapid widespread dissemination of early warnings save thousands of lives.
Punctual mass media action about impending disasters can usher to appropriate individual and community action, which is the key to implementing effective prevention strategies including evacuation and survival of people. Such media actions can instruct, warn, inform, and empower people to take practical steps to protect themselves from natural hazards. Both print and electronic media have a role in informing the people and the authorities during emergencies thus, becomes critical, especially the ways in which media can play a vital role in public awareness and preparedness.
During any crisis, people search for up-to-date, dependable, and comprehensive information (Sivanandan, 2020). The main principle of information provision should be an ethical one; therefore, during an emergency, the media should be profound to the essentials of the public in affected areas and should elude misinforming and broadcasting unconfirmed reports that may lead to further despair, fright, and panic. Thus, precise and reliable information disseminated through the media is an important tool for balancing the conceivable effects of incorrect or distorted information.
Consistent, well-grounded, and timely data provided by the media can help people overcome any kind of fear and fatalism before, during, and after an emergency. As reported by Heudorfer (2016), the availability of reliable and timely information and knowledge about an event and the resulting needs help to improve solidarity and also creates an atmosphere conducive to collective response for sharing the humanitarian challenges created by disasters.
Pondering Moment
Contextualizing to the Philippines’ situation, concerning the closure of the largest media network, ABS-CBN (which forced the company to shut down its Regional Network Group), how did the Filipinos deal with Typhoon Rolly in terms of shielding themselves with life-saving information and updates with about the typhoon’s movement?
The explicit irony is that, on the dawn of the landfall of the typhoon dubbed as the strongest tropical cyclone to hit the Earth this 2020, Philippine Disaster Undersecretary Ricardo Palad urged media organizations to help in disseminating information, expressing that some far-spread areas are only reached by radio. In a long-term lens, will the Philippines survive future disasters, given the fact that a puzzle piece of the media and information picture is indefinitely punctured?
Looking back to the past, ABS-CBN’s regional group — specifically ABS-CBN Tacloban — had been a huge help in aiding people in the Visayan region to have information regarding Typhoon Yolanda, one of the strongest typhoons in 2013. According to Buan (2020), ABS-CBN Tacloban had been a “key presence” with both the preparations and the aftermath of the typhoon.
ABS-CBN’s regional network group comprises 18 regional stations scattered across the country, and gathers and reports news mainly for the region or community that it serves. Often, in natural calamities, these regional groups are the first ones to report from the field, according to an article written by Gupin (2020) for Rappler.
Yet, with ABS-CBN along with its regional group now out of the picture, an “information gap” amidst natural calamities such as the recent Typhoon Rolly is now inevitable — according to Danilo Arao, an associate professor at the journalism department of the University of the Philippines in Diliman in a report written by Mercado (2020) for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The palace — specifically Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque — has stated that there was no such “communication vacuum” that was left due to ABS-CBN’s closure, according to a news article by Philstar. However, several sources contradict this claim.
The information gap could be seen as early as May when ABS-CBN had stopped broadcasting on Philippine television. When Typhoon Ambo made its landfall on Eastern Samar on May 14, 2020, its residents did not manage to anticipate the typhoon’s arrival due to lack of information — presumably because ABS-CBN disappeared from both television and radio. This was stated in a news article written by Mejico and Suguitan (2020) for Rappler. The same article had also stated that with the media giant’s disappearance, relief operations for typhoon-struck residents have been difficult because the operations were handled by regional groups in coordination with local government units — and said groups are now closed.
Former vice president Jejomar Binay has also attested that the information gap left due to ABS-CBN and its regional groups’ closure exists, calling it a “noticeable void that has yet to be filled by the other networks.”
Reports from Rappler (2020) have revealed that ABS-CBN has the widest reach in the archipelago, mainly due to its regional group. Now, with ABS-CBN streaming TV Patrol, their flagship newscast, on online platforms — 30% of households have switched to GMA News’ newscast, 24 Oras. Yet, 36% have opted to turn their televisions off, which cut them off from one of their main information sources. The whole TV viewership in the country has also declined. These statistics were collected by Rappler from a media research company, Kantar Media Philippines.
Arao had stated in Inquirer’s report that some areas in Quezon and Catanduanes only had ABS-CBN as their information source, and there were also remote areas that did not have access to either radio signals or the internet due to signal issues. He also expressed that the usage of local dialects by ABS-CBN’s regional group helped make information more, in quote, “relatable, more digestible and more understandable to the broader community there.”
Yet, with the archipelago’s media giant and its regional group now off-air due to several lawmakers’ decision to turn down its bid for a franchise — it is now unsure if people in remote areas will fare well due to insufficient information sources. Quoting former vice president Jejomar Binay’s statement: “This experience should give us all a vital lesson. That political decisions, especially those intended to exact a steep price for criticisms of government policies and personalities or to redress a real or imagined personal insult, can have far-reaching and even tragic consequences on the lives of ordinary Filipinos.”
In Light of Recent Events
With ABS-CBN losing its franchise, it is unmistakable that some people who have relied on the media giant have now taken to social media to be informed regarding weather updates; surprisingly, social media in the case of Typhoon Ulysses, became a platform for urgent pleas for help.
Typhoon Ulysses, internationally named Typhoon Vamco, had made its deadly landfall over Patnanungan, an island located in Quezon province, around 10:30 in the evening on November 11, 2020 (Lalu, 2020). It has ravaged parts of Bicol, CALABARZON, Central Luzon, and Metro Manila — places that are still reeling back from the onslaught of Typhoon Rolly, 2020’s strongest typhoon, that had made its landfall only less than two weeks before Ulysses.
Typhoon Ulysses had brought heavy to torrential rains and flash floods to the country. Marikina River reached its record-high level — rising to 22.0 meters at 11:00 in the morning on November 12, 2020 (Malasig, 2020) — its waters added to Marikina residents’ demise as floodwaters went as high as their houses’ roofs. Not only was Marikina city subjected to flooding — many parts of Luzon were razed by the typhoon with Metro Manila having its worst floods in years (Inquirer, 2020).
Several hotlines are non-toll free and some are overwhelmed with calls — minimizing their ability to help people. Misleading hotlines have even started to circulate amongst social media, adding to people’s confusion — as a Twitter post by Pasig city Mayor Vico Sotto warned people about a misleading and incorrect Pasig city rescue hotline, advising them to use the real one instead. With this, people have referred to social media networking sites — dominantly Facebook and Twitter — to shout their pleas for help. A report by Manila Bulletin (2020) stated that these social media sites have become the people’s emergency helpline amid Typhoon Ullyses. The hashtag #RescuePH has become trending on Twitter with netizens using the hashtag to disseminate information about the locations of the people needing assistance and rescue. Local LGUs, such as Valenzuela, Navotas, and Pasig have also resorted to an online posting to keep their constituents informed about Typhoon Ulysses’ activity.
Yet, this was not deemed effective as some people remain trapped in their houses hours after they posted their pleas on social media. Some posts, due to Facebook’s algorithm, get seen more often than others — leaving some posts with lower reach. The multitude of posts also left rescuers overwhelmed with the high number of people that need immediate rescue.
In his statement to DZMM radio, Marikina mayor Marcelino Teodoro has attested to this, saying that relief operations were “overwhelming” as he requested donations for motorized boats and airlifts (Philstar, 2020). The Marikina LGU also admitted their lapses in their actions, as they state that they lack resources (hence the donation requests) as they appealed to the national government for aid (CNN Philippines, 2020).
Netizens have also been wondering where the national government is in times of this recent calamity, with #NasaanAngPangulo [#WhereIsThePresident] trending on Twitter. The hashtag has trended because the President has failed to address the nation before Ulysses’s landfall nor assure the public that the after-typhoon response was ready.
According to CNN Philippines (2020), President Rodrigo Roa Duterte responds with, in quote: “It’s not that I am at a distance from you. Gusto kong pumunta doon, makipaglangoy sa inyo. Ang problema pinipigilan ako kasi daw pag namatay ako isa lang ang Presidente. Sabi ko may Vice President naman. Wala silang sinasagot … Binabawalan ako ng nagbabantay sa akin, PSG, doktor. Hindi ako makalabas. Sabi ko gusto ko magpakita sa tao. Ang sabi nila bantayan ‘yung pagkatao ko … Kasi ako ang Presidente.”
[“I wanted to go there, to swim with you. The problem is I was stopped because if I die, there is only one President. I said there is the Vice President. They didn’t respond. I was prohibited from going out by PSG and my doctor. I said I want to show up in the public. They said I needed to be protected because I was the President.”]
With these in mind, it could be concluded that even with social media being used as a tool to shout for aid in times of calamity, insufficient measures being made by the government may still render the usage of social media for naught.
Opening Pandora’s Box
Social media, in the framework of being a medium of information dissemination concerning disaster management and risk reduction, has been used extensively in recent disasters by emergency managers particularly to warn people and help in the coordination of response and recovery (Alampay, et. al, 2018). Due to its recent emergence, social media has only had widespread use in emergency warnings, response, and recovery since 2010. It has played an imperative role during and after major disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake (Yates & Paquette 2011), 2011 Queensland floods in Australia (Bruns et al. 2012), 2011 Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand (Bruns & Burgess 2012), 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami (Hjorth & Kim 2011), 2012 Hurricane Sandy (Lotan 2012) and Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines in 2013.
Most international emergency agencies utilize social media alongside traditional media (e.g. newspapers, television, community meetings) to communicate for a warning, response, and recovery. According to White (2012):
‘Emergency management, on all levels and in all types of organizations, use social media. Each of these groups has a different set of goals and objectives where social media is leveraged as a set of solutions to fit the needs of that particular group’. (White 2012, p. 9)
In the Philippines’ context during Typhoon Ulysses, social media went beyond its expected purpose of reflecting typhoon warnings and updates, for social media transcended to a virtual emergency hotline as several Filipinos trapped in their homes begged to be rescued. With this transition, it is evident that when traditional media, in the embodiment of telephone and cellular hotlines, fail to perform their intended functionalities, people shift to cling on to the last resort, even without the assurance that they will be heard and rescued immediately.
Furthermore, given the fact that not all states are capable of supplying their citizens with a strong internet connection and the idea that social media is more susceptible to misinformation; 72 percent of the population still refer to television and radio news as their daily basis of news. In a research conducted by Media Insight Project, accuracy is the paramount principle of trust on why people turn to television and radio for news.
Leaning towards television and radio news as established by a reliable news organization is shaped by the accuracy, completeness, presentation, balance, transparency, and convenience of the content that is why the majority would refer to traditional media’s news broadcast rather than with social media. According to the Media Insight Project, it is important to note that the technological gap among citizens is an affecting factor why the majority of the population puts their trust in traditional media.
At the end of the day, overcommunication is key. In a report released by Rappler, public health expert Tony Leachon echoed that there could never be too many sources of information in a typhoon.
“In an unprecedented pandemic and flurry typhoons, over-communication is key. It saves life!” Leachon said on Twitter, referring to ABS-CBN.
The media plays a distinctive role in disaster mitigation. Although the aims of the media and those of disaster mitigation organizations are not synonymous, without compromising the independence and integrity of either, much can be done to communicate to the public the information that will help many save their own lives.
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